


Anchor Points

by pr0nz69, SheithFixitZine



Series: Written in the Stars - a Sheith Fixit Zine [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Final Battle, Fix-It, Good Lotor (Voltron), M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pr0nz69/pseuds/pr0nz69, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheithFixitZine/pseuds/SheithFixitZine
Summary: “Did you hear that?” Keith asks, peering through the starfield, trying to find the source of it.“Yeah,” Shiro says, and his voice is unsteady. “Call me crazy, but it sounded like—”“Paladins! Can you hear me?”Keith jumps; the voice is so loud now that he twists in his chair to check the cockpit, half expecting to find someone there.“Lotor,” Shiro breathes.———Caught in the space between realities, the Paladins hear the voice of one they believed to be long dead. Lotor has two requests for them.Written for and in the chronology of the Sheith fix-it zine.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Written in the Stars - a Sheith Fixit Zine [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939831
Kudos: 25





	Anchor Points

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my piece for _Written in the Stars_ , the lovely Sheith fix-it zine! I actually didn't apply to this zine when it was first announced because I didn't have the time for it, but I ended up getting invited to pinch-hit. Funny how things turn out. :)
> 
> I was slotted in to write the climactic battle between the Paladins and Honerva with a side of Lotor fix-it. I struggle to write action scenes, so this was good practice!

It’s nothing short of a miracle, what happens to Voltron and the Atlas, but Keith’s not going to take the sudden transformation for granted. Out of all their battles, this is the one they absolutely  _ cannot _ afford to lose—not when the price is every universe to ever exist.

And yet they’re losing already. Honerva is tearing through realities like they’re wet tissue paper, and there isn’t a damn thing they can do to stop her when she refuses to stand and fight.

Keith slams his fist on Black’s console. “Damn it,” he hisses.

“Keith.”

Shiro’s face flickers over the private vid link. Keith doesn’t even lift his head to the screen. “She’s too damn fast!”

“She has to stop somewhere.”

“Yeah, once she runs out of realities to destroy!” Keith swipes his hand across his brow. “What’s the point in stopping her then? We won’t have anywhere to go back to!”

“Anywhere with you is fine,” Shiro says quietly, and that gets Keith to look up at the screen at last. Shiro’s expression crumples into one of guilt and shame, but Keith can’t help but feel a tiny, satisfied flutter in his chest. “No—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I just—losing you would be the worst thing to ever happen to me. My life wouldn’t be worth living—”

“Yeah” Keith interrupts. “I know. Let’s not worry about words for now—and save those for the ‘I do’s’.”

He blushes immediately after he says it, but Shiro’s face lighting up makes it worth the cheesiness.

“Let’s take out Honerva,” he says, and Keith nods.

“For the sake of all realities.”

“ _ And _ our future together.”

—

They end up in the space between realities. Keith doesn’t try to comprehend it. There’s no time, and metaphysics have never been his forte, anyway. All he knows is that they have to keep Honerva from severing the strings. They’ve lost so many already—so many lives cut away in the time it takes to blink.

The wedding won’t happen now. Why does that disturb him more than the systematic destruction of the universe? It’s something small and tangible, maybe, whereas the latter is simply too vast, too abstract and far-removed, for him to ever fully appreciate the magnitude of.

That’s what he tells himself, at least.

They take a hit—just a clip to the left flank as Honerva streaks by, but it sends them spiraling. As soon as he recovers, Keith reopens his private channel with Shiro. “You still online?” he groans.

There’s some muffled grunting and then: “Yeah. You hurt?”

“I’m fine. But I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up.” He tries to filter the despair out of his voice, to middling effect.

“She’s fast. We need something to catch her off-guard. If we could instigate a feint, her momentum could be enough to overshoot us when we pull back. We can strike then.”

“That’s assuming we can get her to follow us.  _ And _ avoid her in time. As you said, she’s fast.”

Shiro sighs. “Right now, it’s the only shot we’ve got.”

“Hey, guys?” Hunk’s voice crackles through Black’s cockpit. “She’s heading our way again! Time for evasive maneuvers?”

“No,” Keith says. “We’re going to try something different. Set a course directly for her.”

“Are you crazy?” Lance cries. “If we meet her head-on, she’s going to splatter us like a giant space bug!”

“She’s getting closer!” Pidge chimes in. “Are you sure, Keith?”

Keith grips Black’s accelerator. “We can do it! Trust me! On my signal, feint at forty-five degrees! We’re going to target the core of her mech!”

“This is insane,” Allura breathes, but nevertheless, Voltron surges forward with the power of the Atlas and each lion.

Keith sets his sights on Honerva. Even from a distance, he can tell that she’s moving toward them at a blistering speed. Their timing will need to be exact. If they’re even a millisecond too late…

“Form sword!”

Voltron draws its blade.

And yet Shiro is right—there’s no way Honerva will be able to turn in time to guard herself once they get underneath her.  _ If  _ they get underneath her. Keith grits his teeth. They’re risking everything on this— _ he’s _ risking everything. Everyone’s lives.  _ Shiro _ .

“I’ll leave it to you,” Shiro says over their private channel. “I trust you.”

Keith’s heart aches. The wedding, he reminds himself. Just keep thinking about the wedding—what waits for them at the end of all this. The life he never could have imagined having back on Earth.

Honerva’s close. She takes out another chain of realites with her as she cuts through space.

“Now?” Hunk asks.

Not yet. She’s not close enough yet. Keith can start to feel some resistance from Voltron. Maybe it’s the others acting on instinct. Maybe it’s the lions themselves.

But Shiro trusts him.

It’s almost time.

Almost…

“Now!”

He slams the controls back and feels the others do the same. The Voltron-Atlas dives. Keith’s stomach drops with it. Honerva’s mech scrapes by above them; he can feel the friction from the cockpit.

“Sword!”

He can feel the others’ exertion as Voltron swings its blade—and plunges it into the depths of Honerva’s mech.

Reality—or wherever they are, whatever  _ this _ is—shifts around them, and then—

And then—

“Paladins…”

A voice, distant and muffled.

“Hello?” Keith gasps as a distortion of the night sky, hued in pale blue, fills his field of view.

“I’m here, Keith,” comes Shiro’s staticy voice over their still-opened comm link.

Keith lets out a breath. “Where are we? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but stay vigilant. And stay on the line with me—I can’t seem to link with the others.”

“ _ Great _ .”

“Paladins,” the voice repeats, clearer now.

“Did you hear that?” Keith asks, peering through the starfield, trying to find the source of it.

“Yeah,” Shiro says, and his voice is unsteady. “Call me crazy, but it sounded like—”

“Paladins! Can you hear me?”

Keith jumps; the voice is so loud now that he twists in his chair to check the cockpit, half expecting to find someone there.

“Lotor,” Shiro breathes.

A chill slips down Keith’s spine. “No way…”

“Shiro!” Lotor’s voice echoes through the cockpit as if the man himself were speaking directly into Keith’s ear. “So you  _ can _ hear me.”

“We hear you,” Shiro says with surprising composure. “Where are you? What’s happening?”

Lotor sighs, his breath amplified into the rattle of a desert wind. “I don’t know. But I suspect your attack on my Sincline has opened up an avenue through which we may communicate.”

“What does  _ that _ mean?” Keith cries. “And anyway, you’re supposed to be  _ dead _ !”

“There is simply no time to explain everything. I must impart on you two requests before our connection is severed.”

“We’re listening,” Shiro says, shooting Keith a cautious look.

Lotor attempts to say something, but his voice cracks and fizzles out.

“What? The connection is breaking up—”

“ _ Save the Alteans _ !”

Keith feels goosebumps rise along his arms. “Save… the Alteans?” he repeats.

“Yes.” Lotor’s voice is clear and measured again, the connection restored. “The ones I ‘sacrificed’, so to speak. But that isn’t quite accurate. You never learned the entirety of my plan for them.”   
Keith glares into the starfield. “We saw what you did, Lotor. And Romelle said—”

“Romelle did not know the extent of my plan, either,” Lotor interrupts. “Please, listen to what I have to say— _ before _ it is too late.”

“Keith,” Shiro says softly.

“Alright,” Keith grumbles. “Go on.”

“The Alteans here with me—here in the astral plane—yet live,” Lotor says. “When they volunteered their quintessence for my research—yes, it was entirely by their consent, contrary to what you believed—when they volunteered, it was with full knowledge of the procedure I intended to conduct. My methods were…  _ extreme _ , I admit. But they were not quite as extreme as you all have come to believe.”

“That—that’s a lie,” Keith says, weakly. “We saw their bodies—”

“But that was not my sin,” Lotor continues, ignoring him. “My sin is that I broke my promise to revive them, as I had intended once I gained access to the quintessence field. The unfortunate circumstances of my birth saw to the premature end of my plan. I was overcome by the very quintessence I had hoped to control—the quintessence which had poisoned me from the time I resided within my mother’s womb.

“But now, I am free from that cursed body—and so I implore you, paladins of Voltron. I care not what becomes of me, for my arrogance rightly deserves your scorn. But please,  _ save _ these people who I have condemned with my failure.”

Silence follows his words. Keith fidgets in his seat, unsure of what to say. Is it true? Or is Lotor lying again? And yet what motivation would he have if he doesn’t intend to save himself? Is he banking on their taking pity on him?

“You said you had two requests,” Shiro says. “What is the second?”

“The second,” Lotor says, “is to stop Honerva—to stop my mother—from destroying the very fabric of existence for all realities. I now see clearly my mother’s heart—and I can assure you that she does not truly want this. Nor does she want that abominable specter of me she has created in your reality. I understand that you may not forgive me, but you  _ mustn’t _ let her nihilistic designs come to pass!”

Lotor’s voice distorts on the last syllable. “My time is almost up,” he says, “so please, take my words to heart. Save existence. Save the Alteans. And save my mother from herself. Paladins—Allura—I—” His voice hitches as it begins to fade. “I am  _ sorry _ .”

The starfield vanishes—and Honerva’s mech floats idly by, split into pieces.

“Lotor,” Allura whispers, their comm link reestablished.

“Don’t,” Keith tells her. “Don’t think about it right now. We’ll figure it out—whatever he was talking about. We’ll figure it out, but for now—”

“Honerva,” Shiro says.

“Right. So stay strong, guys. We’ll do this—we’ll figure this out. We always have.”

—

Lotor was right about Honerva, at least. This isn’t what she wants. It’s almost poetic how it’s Allura who makes her realize it. Together, they put things right again. Keith can’t help wondering if maybe this is Allura’s way of taking something back, reclaiming some of the agency that time and circumstance stole from her.

It isn’t like he doesn’t understand. After everything, when they return heroes, he holds Shiro’s hand in his and realizes that everyone needs some kind of anchor point to hold them steady.


End file.
